


Can I Have A Hug?

by Flameo_Hotman



Category: Avatar: The Last Airbender
Genre: Backrubs, But just barely, Cuddling & Snuggling, Fluff, For a Flameo_Hotman fic, Hug Fic, Hugs, Hurt/Comfort, I know I'm just as surprised as yahl are, Light Angst, M/M, No Smut, Sokka is in love with Zuko, Zuko (Avatar) Needs a Hug, Zuko deserves a hug, Zuko is an Awkward Turtleduck, post Boiling Rock, touch starved zuko, zuko has hypersensitive skin
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-05-02
Updated: 2020-05-02
Packaged: 2021-03-01 19:29:21
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 2,023
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/23972257
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Flameo_Hotman/pseuds/Flameo_Hotman
Summary: Beta Read By HaicrescendoZuko gets a hug. That's it. That is the whole fic.It is a good ass hug.Yahl this is some serious fluff.
Relationships: Sokka/Zuko (Avatar)
Comments: 64
Kudos: 1520





	Can I Have A Hug?

**Author's Note:**

  * For [Haicrescendo](https://archiveofourown.org/users/Haicrescendo/gifts), [scar-and-boomerang (Y_Woo)](https://archiveofourown.org/users/Y_Woo/gifts).



> I based Zuko's hypersensitive skin off of my own. I am touch starved and would like a hug and coarse shirts give me rashes irl.

The fabric of the prisoner rags, Zuko had been made to wear after being captured on The Boiling Rock, were rough and coarse and felt like someone was grinding shards of glass into his sides. Zuko hated every moment he was made to wear them.

It wasn’t that he had been spoiled by the soft silk robes of royalty, it was just that silk didn’t make his skin feel like it was being seared from his body. It didn’t  _ hurt _ .

Zuko could hardly remember a time that his skin didn’t scream out in mild agony when something’s touch was too rough or coarse.

When he thought back to that time, he was met with the scent of his mother’s perfume and the gentle quacks of turtle ducks. And while the memory made him feel hollow and empty and so full of longing for a time when things had been right with the world, he didn’t cry.

Sometimes, he wondered if he even remembered how to.

But when they had finally returned to the Western Air Temple, he felt relief flood through him, and he slid away from the rest of the group full of happy reunions. That was something that he would never have in his life. His mother was gone, and she wouldn’t ever be coming back.

And maybe the not knowing  _ why _ she was gone, was somehow worse. It left the question of if she had simply died or if she had chosen to leave him behind. To leave him all alone with his father.

He would never know, but he didn’t cry because he no longer knew how.

Once he’d reached his room, he was careful to keep the fabric away from his sides as he slowly removed the coarse prison tunic from his body. As much as he wanted to tear the abominable article away from his raw and tender skin, he didn’t.

It would have burned even worse than slowly and methodically taking it off, like the neurotic mess of a person that he was.

The moment his skin was finally free of it, he let out a sigh of relief, as cool air soothed his burning flesh.

It was like rubbing aloe on a sunburn.

This was as close to okay he would be, without his uncle nearby to force tea and wisdom onto him.

It was a moment of peace and he was determined to allow himself to savor it for the brief moment that his life would allow.

“Hey, Zuko? You disappeared, and Toph said that you—“, Are you okay?” Sokka had seemingly come from nowhere, but the sudden panic in his voice was just as sudden.

Zuko went rigid for a moment, before he shot up from his bed, and snatched his silk shirt from his bag. He tried to yank it on, but Sokka was there and grabbing his wrists.

“No, what happened? Do I need to go get Kata—” 

But Zuko shouted and stopped the warrior from finishing his sentence.“No! I’m fine!”

Sokka looked far from convinced, as he frowned and said, “No, you’re covered in  _ rashes _ . Katara can heal them with her weird water magic. So either sit down and explain what happened or I go get her so she can heal you.”

Zuko full-on gaped at Sokka, but after a moment’s hesitation he sat down on the bed.

Sokka looked pleased, as he sat down next to him and asked, “What happened?”

“It’s going to sound stupid,” Zuko murmured in reply. “The prisoner’s tunic did this…”

Sokka looked confused, but he picked up the discarded tunic from the bed and rubbed his thumb against it. Then he glanced at the rash that covered the fire bender’s skin, that looked like it had been rubbed raw.

A glimmer of understanding filled those blue eyes and then Sokka was asking, “Do you have sensitive skin? Is that what happened?”

Zuko gave a single awkward nod, but he didn’t say anything.

“Do you have anything we can put on it?”

Zuko looked up at Sokka, shock, and confusion filling him like a gentle caress, before sputtering, “What?”

“The rash? It looks pretty bad, so if you have an ointment I can—”

Horror filled the fire bender, at the idea of hands he wasn’t sure would be gentle and kind on his skin pressing against touch pained skin, and he shouted, “ _ No _ ! I’ll be fine! I don’t need—!”

Sokka stayed where he sat despite the sudden fury he had been met with, and Zuko for his life couldn’t fathom why.

“Zuko—”

“I don’t need your help!”

Sokka looked serious as he answered, voice firm and unyielding, “Zuko, it’s not like you’ve made a habit of taking care of yourself. Why won’t you just let me help you?”

“Because it’ll just hurt more!” The way Zuko’s voice broke at the end was the closest that he’d gotten to crying in years, and all at once he felt exposed and like some vulnerable, aching part of himself had clawed its way out from his chest to reveal just how broken he truly was.

Sokka dropped the tunic and leaned forward to hug him, but panic pushed him away and Zuko scrambled off from the bed out of reach of those arms.

His heart was racing and terror had flooded him.

“Hey, buddy? Are you okay?” Sokka asked, looking worried, as he got up from the bed.

Zuko forced himself to calm down, as he answered, feeling exposed and awkward, “Please, don’t hug me…”

“Okay, I won’t hug you, unless you want me to,” Sokka soothed, as he led Zuko to sit back down on the bed. “You’re okay. I won’t hurt you.”

Zuko worried at his lip for a few moments before saying, “It isn’t that I don’t want a hug, but hugs hurt…Just like the shirt…”

Sokka looked thoughtful before he asked, “What part of the hug hurts?”

“What?” Zuko asked, confused, as he looked at Sokka. A warm, hopeful feeling bubbling up inside him because if the plan guy was asking that question…

“If I know what hurts about hugs, then I could figure out how to give you one without hurting you. If you want.”

Zuko sat there for a few moments waiting for the water tribesman to tell him that he had only been joking, but when he didn’t, Zuko explained, “It's mostly my sides… It feels like someone is trying to burn me when something touches them wrong. My stomach and lower back are like that as well. And the underside of my upper arms.”

“So basically where your skin is the softest?”

Zuko nodded.

Sokka smiled and said soothingly, “So if I wrap my arms around your shoulders and you wrapped your arms around my middle, you wouldn’t hurt?”

“I think so…” Zuko answered as he felt his heart rate pick up at the thought he might get to finally have his first real hug in years.

Uncle used to try and hug him, but when he realized his hugs hurt Zuko, he had stopped.

“Is it okay if I give you a hug?” Sokka asked, sitting still and not leaning in yet. Just in case Zuko decided to say no.

“Please,” Zuko said, voice small and quiet. Afraid that Sokka was going to back out at the last minute, but he didn’t.

Arms wrapped gently and carefully around his shoulders and a hand snaked up to cradle the back of his head. Zuko was rigid for a few moments before he realized that his skin didn’t feel like it was on fire beneath the warm weight of Sokka’s embrace.

He hesitated for a moment before he reached out and wrapped his own arms around Sokka’s middle and it was like sinking into warmth and safety. He melted into it.

He half expected to hear the gentle quacking of turtle ducks, but he didn’t. Instead, he heard the gentle sounds of the temple in the evening.

“I don’t know how long hugs are meant to last…” He admitted, awkwardly, and refused to let go.

Sokka gave a soft chuckle, before saying, “They last as long as you need them to. I’ll hug you until you’re ready for me to let you go. I’ll hug you whenever you want me to. All you have to do is ask.”

“Thank you…” Zuko murmured, as he pressed himself even deeper into the hug. There was an odd fluttery feeling in his chest that he hadn’t had before, but it felt nice. “Are hugs supposed to make you feel like you have dragonflies in your stomach?”

“Only when you’re hugging someone you really like, but I’ve got some in my own stomach. So you don’t have to feel weird,” Sokka answered slightly awkwardly, but he sounded happy.

They stayed like that for a long while. Soaking up each other's warmth.

Zuko felt like he could have Sokka hug him forever and it still wouldn’t be enough, so long before he was ready for the hug to be over, he pulled away from the embrace, and got up from the bed to grab a salve from his bag.

He stood in front of Sokka awkwardly for a moment, before he handed it to him.

“Are you sure?” Sokka asked as he took the salve from Zuko.

Zuko sat down and faced towards the water tribe warrior and nodded.

“If you want me to stop, just let me know and I will.”

Zuko gave another nod, before saying, “Just use a lot of pressure. It still won’t feel comfortable for me, but it won’t hurt.”

“Okay, I’m gonna touch you now,” Sokka stated, once he’d globbed some of the salve onto his hands.

Zuko tensed at the touch, but it didn’t hurt like he feared it would. It almost felt nice, even if it was still bordering on too much.

He braced his hands on Sokka’s shoulders, and he kept his breathing even and slow as the warrior worked to rub the salve into his irritated skin. The longer Sokka’s hands were touching him, the less it seemed to feel like too much.

  
Slowly Zuko’s touch pained skin relaxed and it began to feel soothing, and Zuko found himself pressing into that touch.

“Does this feel okay?” Sokka asked, checking in on the fire bender, who felt surprisingly content at Sokka’s touch.

Zuko hadn’t realized until that moment, but he’d climbed into Sokka’s lap at some point and Sokka was just rubbing circles into his back. He thought about pulling away for only one moment, but then he hummed happily into Sokka’s neck and nodded.

“It feels nice… Can you keep doing that?” He murmured wistfully, as he felt himself growing drowsy. It was relaxing and amazing and he wished he’d asked Sokka to hug him sooner. He had been missing out on something this wonderful out of the fear that it would never not hurt.

“Okay, I’ll keep it up as long as you want me to,” Sokka answered, letting the touch starved fire bender slowly fall asleep in his lap. 

When Sokka was sure that Zuko had fallen fast asleep, he whispered out into the silence that was only broken by the fire bender’s soft breathing, “I would do anything for you… All you have to do is ask.”

Zuko stirred from his dozing to look up at Sokka all cute and sleepy-looking, when he’d heard those words, resting on the edge of wakefulness and sleep, and he whispered back, “ Then fall in love with me.”

Sokka wasn’t sure Zuko would remember asking him to in the morning, but he answered anyway, “I already did, beautiful.”

This time Zuko actually did fall asleep, and Sokka carefully adjusted the two of them so that way they were laying on their sides, Zuko curled up against his chest, while Sokka continued to rub warm lazy circles into the fire bender’s back.

“I don’t think anything could have stopped me from falling for you,” Sokka murmured into Zuko’s soft hair before he drifted off himself.

Holding the firebender in his arms and in his heart.


End file.
